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A Jolly Folly?. Allan J. Macdonald
Читать онлайн.Название A Jolly Folly?
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isbn 9781498242998
Автор произведения Allan J. Macdonald
Жанр Религия: прочее
Издательство Ingram
Excursus on Mithraism
The first empire after the Flood was that of Babylon (c. 2200 BC) under Nimrod, Noah’s descendent via Ham and Cush (Gen 10:8–10). Ezekiel, prophesying to the Jewish captives in their Babylonian exile around 600 BC, condemns the worship of Tammuz (Ezek 8:13–18) the mythological son of Nimrod mothered by Semiramis, believed by pagans to have been born miraculously at the winter solstice. Numerous Babylonian monuments show the goddess-mother Semiramis with her son in her arms.
From Babylon this mystery religion spread to all the surrounding nations as the years went on and the world was populated by the descendants of Noah. Everywhere the symbols were the same and everywhere the cult of the mother and child became the basis of the ancient pagan religion’s popular system. Their worship was celebrated with immoral practices and the image of the queen of heaven with the babe in her arms was seen everywhere, though the names might differ as languages differed. It became the mystery religion of Phoenicia and by the Phoenicians was carried to the ends of the earth. In Egypt, the mother and child were worshipped as Isis and Osiris or Horus; in India as Isi and Iswara; in China, Japan, and Tibet, as the mother goddess Shing-moo with child (Jesuit missionaries to the East were astonished to find the counterpart of the Madonna and child as devoutly worshiped as they were in Rome); in Greece as Ceres or Irene and Plutus; in Rome as Fortuna and Jupitor-puer, or Venus and Adurnis; and in Scandinavia as Frigga and Balder. When Caesar invaded Britain, he discovered the Druid priests worshiping the “mother of god” as Virgo-Patitura.
The mother and child were worshiped in Babylon as Ishtar and Tammuz, and in Phoenicia as Ashtoreth and Baal. When Belshazzar was slain (Dan 5:30) and the Persians came to power under Cyrus and later Darius, the worship spread west into Anatolia which eventually by the first century BC, became the Roman province of Asia. As Imperial Rome was tied to Egypt by conquest and by necessity (the fertile lands around the Nile providing a major source of food for Rome), it is not surprising to discover that the Isis cult became fully integrated into Roman life. Ancient Egyptian depictions of Isis and Horus became replicated in Roman coinage of the third century AD.
Semiramis was worshiped in Ephesus as the pagan fertility goddess Diana, who represented the generative powers of nature. She was referred to as a fertility goddess because she mothered all the numerous pagan gods representing the god-incarnate Tammuz.
Diana was pictured with numerous teats so that she could nurse all the pagan gods, and she wore a tower-shaped crown symbolizing the Babylonian tower of Babel.
Sun worship is very central to Buddhism and Hinduism in which some of the doctrines are as follows: as the sun god (Nimrod) plunged into the waters of the Euphrates River, so the reincarnated son plunged into the waters of the womb to be worshiped as the savior; the cycle of the sun represents the sun rising (Brahma), the sun at the meridian (Siva), and the sun setting (Vishnu); at night, the sun rests in the womb of the ocean in the darkness of the underworld, representing the death and suffering of the sun god. As god of the ocean (Poseidon, Neptune), he was also worshipped as the fish god Dagon, who had plunged into the waters of the womb to be reborn. The most prominent form of worship in Babylon was dedicated to Dagon, later known as Ichthys, or the fish (Judg 16:23; 1 Chr 10:10; 1 Sam 5). Another name for sun worship is Mithraism. The Encyclopaedia Britannica calls Mithra “the Iranian god of the sun, justice, contract, and war” and states that this pagan deity (originating in Indo-Persia during Moses’ era c. 1500 BC) was referred to as “Mithras” in the Roman Empire during the early centuries after Christ’s death.6 (It should be noted that from the eighteenth century onwards in the rise of modern human secularism, much has been published that emphasizes similarities between Mithraism and Christianity, arguing that the latter is but an imitation of the former. However, on closer scrutiny, these claims are spurious and are void of any tangible evidence from the extant records of Mithraism.)
According to the Roman historian Plutarch (c. 46–120 AD), Mithraism began to be absorbed by the Romans during Pompey’s military campaign against Cilician pirates around 70 BC. The religion eventually migrated from Asia Minor through the soldiers, many of whom had been citizens of the region, into Rome and the far reaches of the empire. Syrian merchants brought Mithraism to the major cities, such as Alexandria, Rome, and Carthage, while captives carried it to the countryside. By the third century AD Mithraism and its mysteries permeated the Roman Empire and extended from India to Scotland, with abundant monuments in numerous countries amounting to over 420 Mithraic sites so far discovered. The worship of the sun remained very prominent in Roman society and toward the end of the third century AD, the Lord Jesus was being referred to as the “Sun of Justice.” There was without much doubt, a syncretism of the worship of the sun and the worship of the Son of God!
This Roman coin from the third century AD (Probus, AD 276–282) depicts, on the reverse, the pagan sun god driving a chariot drawn by four horses (Sol in Quadriga). The inscription reads SOLI INVICTO: “The Invincible Sun.”
A similar mosaic found in the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica, on the vaulted ceiling of the tomb of the Julii (also known as Mausoleum M), depicts Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol riding in his chariot and is dated to the third century AD. The two left horses were destroyed when the hole was made to enter the tomb. This mosaic demonstrates that the pagan Roman culture of the day was incorporating Christ into the myriad of idols that they worshipped. An inscription by a T. Flavius Hyginus, dating to around 80–100 AD in Rome, dedicates an altar to Sol Invictus Mithras. These facts combine to explain why the Savior was honored by some in Rome with the title, “Sun of Justice.” It is simply the attachment of a Mithraic title to Christ!
Many Romans simply preferred to worship the sun god that their ancestors had always worshiped. Their “god of light” was known by many names such as Mithra, Baal, and Sol Invicti. Now, another name was being connected to this pagan deity of the sun. That name was none other than Christ Jesus!
Syncretism
It appears that the church in Rome was willing, at the very least, to look the other way as the connection was being made. The intention of converting pagans to Christianity may have been